Men and women report feeling more pain if the person inflicting the pain is male, shows a UK study.
Participants placed a finger in a clamp which was tightened using a pressure gauge until they reported feeling pain. Both men and women appeared to feel pain more quickly if the person turning the clamp was a man.
Previous studies have shown that men report feeling less pain in front of a female experimenters – but this was put down to their wanting to appear more macho.
David Williams, who carried out the study at the University of Westminster in the UK, says his findings contradict this assumption. Williams suggests that the subjects of his study may be socially conditioned to expect men to be more likely to inflict harm. The effect, “is likely to be a result of what participants subconsciously expect, based on socially acquired gender stereotypes,” he says.
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The study also shows that a person’s surroundings can affect their sensitivity to pain. Objects that might be associated with suffering – such as a chart showing wounds or a poster related to blood donations – were found to make the participants report feeling pain more readily.
Evolutionary benefit
Williams speculates that a subjective interpretation of pain may be geared towards survival. “Heightened sensitivity would have an evolutionary benefit as it would make people more likely to take action to avoid pain and therefore more likely to leave a negative or dangerous situation,” he says. “Or leave it more quickly than they would do otherwise.”
The study took account of the fact that men in general appear to have a higher pain threshold than women. Participants were also asked to rate the pain they felt on a sliding scale. Subjects indicated feeling roughly the same amount of pain each time, indicating that they were not reporting it falsely.
But other experts are more guarded about the study’s implications. Gary Rollman, of the University of Western Ontario in Canada, says numerous social factors may have contributed to the results. “One has to be cautious about any study of this sort in terms of generalising,” he told New Scientist.
But Rollman says the study could help medical practitioners understand how they might lessen the suffering of their patients. “There may be things that all pain practitioners can learn in terms of listening to their patients and being aware of their expectation of pain and trying to reassure them,” he says.
